What makes your great in God's eyes?
It is to be of service to others.
God does not want you ruling over others and making everyone serve you. He wants you to realize that greatness is found in how much you help others. That is how he rules, as an intercessor, not as a tyrant.
Having Christ as our righteousness is more than having a right standing being imputed unto or into us. It is about how we cooperate with the grace of God and live holy because of the blotting out of our past sins.
The Wisdom of God is imparted to us who abide in Christ. Nothing more could be understood without this union. A union of being a branch on a vine.
United with Christ. How sweet that revelation is if we will only take the time to really understand it.
What does it take to be saved?
Do you only want a one and done? Or do you crave more from God?
Our lives are meant to be full and meaningful. The way to find that is to develop more than just acquiring the things of life and from God, but to really experience God in a relationship.
The most fundamental relationship we can have with God is one depicted in the parable of the Vine. As we really understand this the way we are Christian can become something more than just a past victory or momentary thing we do like a chore or job. For as a branch we find a deeper relationship than a mere religion. We find a more abundant way to live.
Our abiding in Jesus as a branch does to a vine is the ongoing work of faith in our lives. Everything that makes Christianity more than just another religion is based on understanding just how this abiding is the continual work of our faith in God as an ongoing relationship. Have you wondered what separates the Christian faith from other -isms that present a list of does and don't?
We have a unique relationship with our loving Savior. A relationship that unites us with Him like a branch is united to a vine. When we truly understand this, the whole of Christianity takes a deeper meaning that has been promoted from the pulpits. A meaning that is founded in an ongoing relationship with our God.
This Sunday's readings give us a chance to consider the relationships that we have with each other and especially with God. In considering who marriage reflects our relationship with God we are drawn to see how each one of us is united with one another by the union we have individually with God in the gospel.
The key to holiness and a deeper experience of Christ is found in fixing your gaze on Him who is the Bread of Life.
If you will focus on Jesus and give yourself to His grace, He will work out the good fruit that He seeks for you to cooperate with Him in doing.
True victory over sin and temptation can be found in the love of an abiding Christ!